**"Bold text in quotation marks signifies words spoken aloud." 'Italicized text enclosed with apostrophes signifies a character's thoughts.'**

Undyne continues her pursuit of the human, and tries to teach a child a lesson in how to deal with enemies... but who's really doing the teaching here?

Chapter Eleven: Determination

It didn't take long for the little human to catch up.

Undyne was honestly kind of impressed that the kid hadn't run screaming back to their Snowdin friends after seeing her earlier. Still, impressed or not, she had a job to do, and refused to let up until it was done. She hid in the shadows near a long dock in Waterfall, flinging a spear right in the kid's path as they approached.

The human glanced her way, a flicker of fear betraying them before they adopted a neutral expression and began to run along the dock, continuing further into Waterfall. 'Ohh, wrong choice, punk.'

Flashing light spears slammed repeatedly into the dock, Undyne furiously trying to skewer her quarry. Somehow, the brat managed to dodge every time, sometimes by the skin of their teeth, but it was frustrating to the guard nonetheless. This should be easy for her! She'd been training her entire life to capture and kill enemies, but this little kid was outpacing her?

Undyne pursued them along the entire dock, growling in frustration when they darted into another patch of sea grass. She stomped after them, vaguely remembering that Alphys liked this stuff and she should be careful not to ruin it, but too stubborn to let them go again. She walked slower, watching closely for any sign of movement among the plants…

There.

It was brief, but a few blades of the tall grass had rustled close by. She approached the spot, raising her hand gradually, and quick as a flash snatched up… the scaled, yellow monster kid. There were not words strong enough to convey her irritation, and it took a massive amount of self-control not to punt the kid back to Snowdin where they belonged, but of course she couldn't hurt a child.

Well, not a monster child, anyway. Carefully she set the kid down, and walked away. It wasn't like she could fight in an area where an innocent person might get hurt. Next time she'd have them for sure.

Except, she didn't. When she chased them along another dock, jamming spears up from underneath to try and block their path, the human still managed to dodge her. After she broke off the end of the damn dock to try and send them plummeting to their death, Undyne almost completely lost it when she saw that the human had somehow survived the fall.

Well, if there was an upside to any of this, it would be that she would have no problem killing them now. They'd pissed her off too many times for that.

So, she decided to mess with them a bit the next time, maybe have a little fun with it.

She covered up the lit path that would have led the human in the right direction, and growled "behind you" into an echo flower at the dead end of the cave section. Not the most mature thing she'd ever done, but if it worked she didn't care. Besides, she'd look like a badass before she killed the brat.

Sure enough, the little twerp fell for it. She watched them (her vision had more time to adjust to the dark) walk right up to the echo flower and listen to it. Their little shoulders stiffened as the message came through and they turned, slowly, to face Undyne.

As she approached she kicked the covering off the lighted path so they would be able to see her. The charade had been worth the reaction; the kid was obviously scared shitless. Beneath her helmet, she grinned. She felt awesome.

At least until the seriousness of her task registered in her brain, and she adopted the appropriate solemn tone as she approached closer to her terrified prey. Her mood wasn't helped by the fact that the human had switched out the dancer's clothes for Annie's glasses and notebook. Gerson must have given them to the kid… why? Just to torment Undyne? To try and get her to stop? It was too late for any of that.

'This is it. No more stalling.'

"Seven. Seven human souls. With the power of seven human souls, our king… King Asgore Dreemurr… will become a god. With that power, Asgore can finally shatter the barrier. He will finally take the surface back from humanity, and give them back the suffering and pain that we have endured."

The kid's face betrayed their dread, but showed no real surprise; they'd clearly heard something along these lines before. Of course. Their innocent schtick back in Snowdin probably resulted in plenty of people warning them that Asgore would not let them go free.

"Understand, human? This is your only chance at redemption." As she spoke, Undyne struggled to make herself believe her own monologue. "Give up your soul, or I'll tear it from your body." She materialized a spear in her hands and took a few steps toward the kid, waiting to see if they'd fight.

They seemed frozen, shocked into stillness. They couldn't run with the guard blocking the only exit, and if they wouldn't defend themselves, this was Undyne's chance to end it quickly. She charged forward, readying for a killing blow…

'ARE YOU FUCKINGKIDDING ME?!'

Right before she was about to jam her spear into the human, that same little monster kid jumped out in front of them, shouting enthusiastically. "Undyne! I'll help you fight!"

Undyne was fairly certain that her mind was overwhelmed with so much rage that it was short-circuiting. For the moment, all she could do was stand there, frozen much like the human. The monster child looked between the human and Undyne before focusing on the human.

Of course they'd be friends. Why not? The entire damned universe seemed out to thwart Undyne at this point.

"Yo! You did it! Undyne is RIGHT in front of you! You've got front row seats to her fight!"

This dunce didn't even realize that the human was a human. She'd heard from the Canine Unit that such was the case in Snowdin, but seeing the stupidity in action was far more jarring. The kid looked from Undyne to the trembling human again, looking massively confused. Maybe it would dawn on him and he'd fucking move…

"wait. Who's she fighting?"

That was it. Last straw. Undyne let the spear fade and snatched the kid by the side of his head, dragging him away from the human and back toward Snowdin.

"H-hey! You aren't gonna tell my parents about this, are you?"

"You better believe I am, punk…"

Undyne's rage faded as she continued walking the kid home, and she gradually came to a stop. This kid reminded her of herself, in a way. She clearly remembered being about this monster's age, following Gerson around… suddenly she felt ashamed, her eyes flicking over to the entrance of the old tortoise's shop. Gerson had been a lot nicer to her than she was being to this little kid. What kind of example was she setting by acting this way?

'No. Don't back down. One more soul, remember? Then everyone will be free to achieve their dreams.'

She gave a huge sigh and turned to look down at the kid, letting go of him. "Look. I won't tell your parents, okay? But you gotta understand something, kid. That human? They're not your friend. You need to stay away from them."

"Yo… they're human? I thought they were just a monster kid, like me!"

"No. They're your enemy, you understand? They're everyone's enemy. You heard what I was saying before about humans, right?"

"Y-Yeah, but…"

"No buts. Stay away from that human. Get home to your parents. Let me handle this."

She sternly watched, making sure the kid was well on his way back toward Snowdin before turning around and hurrying to catch up with the human she'd left behind. Sure enough, when she reached the echo flower, they were gone. Biting back what would have been a string of swear words, she stormed along the lit path after them.

She heard talking up ahead. If she hadn't been wearing her armor, she would have face-palmed. It was almost funny at this point. Undyne didn't know how he'd done it, but the little monster kid had slipped around her and caught up to the human first. She could hear their conversation, though it sounded pretty one-sided. The guard approached slowly, listening. The two kids were on a rickety, narrow bridge, and Undyne didn't want to startle the monster child into falling. He didn't have hands to catch himself with.

"Yo, say something mean so I can hate you? Please?"

Good lord. The kid was taking this harder than Undyne had thought he would. She saw the human smile sadly and shake their head no. Something about that look irritated the guard. Did this kid think they were somehow above ages of war between monsters and humans? As if their own personal kindness would somehow make up for all the pain monsters had suffered…

"Yo, what? So I have to do it? Here goes nothing…" The monster kid took a deep breath. He looked tense. "Yo, I… I hate your guts." He let out a big huff of air, and Undyne felt real pity for the kid when he spoke again. His voice was just so… defeated. And she'd made him feel this way. What a role model.

"Man, I… I'm such a turd. I'm… I'm gonna go home now." Undyne saw him turn toward her and ducked into the shadows as he began to run, intending to let him book it back to Snowdin (finally).

And then…

"Yo, w-w-wait! Help! I tripped!"

'FUCK.'

The kid had, indeed, tripped. He was half-on, half-off the old bridge now, slipping, his short legs scrabbling desperately against the sheer cliff as he tried to save himself. Undyne stormed into the room without thinking, but paused as the human took a step forward at the same time. Her mind raced wildly.

'Are they planning to attack when I go to help the kid? Shit, but I can't just…'

The human had paused for a very short moment when they noticed Undyne standing there, but they had a determined look on their face. Pointedly, they looked away from her and ran to help the monster kid, giving a low groan with the effort of pulling him up. The kid was shaking like a maraca, but looked immensely grateful and relieved.

He noticed Undyne and gave her a strange look. It struck the guard that he was trying to be scary.

"Y-y-yo… dude… If… If y-you wanna hurt my friend… You're gonna have to get through me, first."